ABOUT JULIE JOHNSTONE
Julie Johnstone is an artist, independent curator and publisher based in Edinburgh, UK.
She creates artists’ books and installations that explore visual perception, distillation and contemplative experience. Working in a variety of forms, including cards and poem-objects, her work also particularly explores using gradient tints of the pure colours of the cmyk colour system and the possibilities in using simple inkjet technology on watercolour paper.
Works are held in collections at Tate Library, National Art Library (V&A), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Yale Center for British Art, University College London, Winchester School of Art, Glasgow School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, Centre for Fine Print Research at University of West of England, Bibliothèque nationale de France, University of Maryland, Artists’ Books Collection Dundee, Stirling University, National Poetry Library, Scottish Poetry Library, and in private collections.
She regularly exhibits at artists’ book fairs, including PAGES (Leeds International Contemporary Artists’ Books Fair), BABE (Bristol Artists’ Book Event), Small Publishers Fair (London), BookMarket (Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh).
Her minimal text works have appeared in several journals and publications, most recently in The New Concrete: visual poetry since 2000 (Hayward Publishing, 2015), Quait, Scree, and p.o.w
COLLECTIVES
She is a member of the AMBruno collective and exhibits with them internationally and throughout the UK, including:
London Art Book Fair, Whitechapel Gallery | Berliner Liste fair for contemporary art | Barcelona Arts Libris International Fair | New York Art Book Fair | MISS READ: Berlin Art Book Festival | AMBruno Show and Tell, Tate Britain 2017 | PAGES Leeds International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair | BABE Bristol Artists’ Book event | BALTIC Artists’ Book Fair
RESIDENCIES
She was awarded the inaugural Research Residency in Artists’ Books at the Edinburgh College of Art Library, May 2014.
Funding was granted by Creative Scotland in 2015 for an extended residency and exhibition in Kyoto, Japan, after a self-funded initial visit in 2014. Further research residencies were undertaken in Kyoto in 2016 and 2018.
CURRENT & FUTURE EXHIBITIONS
An exhibition of new work made responding to the painter Agnes Martin was exhibited at the Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol, 21 April – 28 June 2023, and at Edinburgh College of Art Library, 15 January – 29 February 2024. The works can be viewed online here.
Her work was featured in an experiment and exhibition at the Scottish Poetry Library in 2019 exploring innovative ways to digitise artists’ books, alongside the work of Thomas A Clark and Heather Yeung. The digitised works can be viewed here.
Her previous solo exhibition was at the private library of William Zachs, Blackie House, Edinburgh, 2017-2018.
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
AMBruno – Rhythm @ Printed Matter New York, 2024
on a clear day | book works & poem objects responding to Agnes Martin (with Alan Shipway) Edinburgh College of Art Library, 2024
Making Waves Upright Gallery, Edinburgh, 2023
on a clear day | book works & poem objects responding to Agnes Martin (solo) Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol, 2023
space, line, colour (as curator) Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol, 2023
The Mountains are Calling… Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol, 2023
Pattern:Books Upright Gallery, Edinburgh, 2022
Ed Ruscha / SABPP Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol, 2022
AMBruno – Volume @ Printed Matter New York, 2022
Winter Books Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol, 2021-22
Fair Winds and Following Seas Edinburgh College of Art 2021, Scottish Poetry Library 2022
The Challenge of Digitisation Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh, 2019
Print Matters Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Art and Design Wrocław, Poland, 2019
PAGES New Voices ROAR, Rotherham, Doncaster Art Gallery & Museum, Cooper Gallery, Barnsley, 2019
book lab at Takesada Masutani Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2018
Octavo Fika at Book Week Scotland Edinburgh, 2018
each breath, a page | each page, a breath (solo) StAnza Poetry Festival, St Andrews, 2018
The Book of the Sky (solo) Blackie House, Edinburgh Dec 2017- Nov 2018
Making Beyond Words: Intersections between Text, Image, Display: Celebrating 50 years of Concrete Poetry Bath Spa University, Corsham, 2017
Pages: Future Present, The Tetley, Leeds, 2017
Frog Pond Plop : homage to Basho, Cairn, Pittenweem, Scotland, 2015
RUkSSIAN Artists’ Books Tsaritsyno Museum and Reserve, Moscow, 2014
& Pavel Kuznetsov Museum, Saratov, Russia, 2014
Art/Book/Object Gabrielle Keiller Library, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 2014
‘Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower’: Artists’ Books and the Natural World Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, 2014
53 Books Chelsea College of Arts Library, London, 2016
Julie Johnstone: Artists’ Books (solo) Galerie Weissraum, Kyoto, 2015
Formations Edinburgh College of Art Library, 2014
AMBruno 2008-2014 Bower Ashton Library, UWE, Bristol, 2014
Punctuations, Separations Eagle Gallery, London, 2013
PALIMPCYST Yellow Bench, Edinburgh, 2013
Visual Poetics Saison Poetry Library, Southbank, London, 2013
Sense of Place in Artist Books University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA, 2012
Life, the universe and everything IMPACT 7: Intersections & Counterpoints, Melbourne, Australia, 2011
Beyond Content Stanley & Aubrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds, 2010
The Secret Library of Solihull Solihull Gallery, Solihull, 2010
Various artists’ book displays Tate Britain reading room & Meschac Gaba show
In a different light (solo) Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh 2007
Word Order Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen; The Changing Room, Stirling, 2006, with Alec Finlay, David Bellingham and Thomas A Clark
Island works (solo) Stanza International Poetry Festival, St Andrews, 2006
ESSENCE PRESS
Through her Essence Press imprint she has undertaken many handmade publishing and editorial projects, working with poets and artists from Scotland, the UK and America, and edited two journal series, less, and, island. Essence Press has worked with several poets and artists to create hand bound artists’ books or poem-objects, including Thomas A Clark, Alec Finlay, Richard Price, Gerry Cambridge, Jane Hirshfield, and Maria White.
Essence Press has twice been nominated for the annual Callum Macdonald Pamphlet Award, most recently in 2019 for zenscotlit by Alan Spence, launched at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
CURATORIAL
She was formerly the Librarian and Curator at the Scottish Poetry Library (2000-2017), responsible for the day to day management of the library, curation of the special collections and exhibition programme. She established By Leaves We Live, the annual artists’ books and small presses fair (2005-2013) there and curated multiple exhibitions, most notably:
A Model of Order Various venues, Edinburgh 2009 | A city-wide exhibition and event programme on concrete poetry, curated with Thomas A Clark, drawing on the participation of several venues and collections across Edinburgh including Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the National Library of Scotland and Edinburgh College of Art.
SMALL Scottish Poetry Library, 2010; Byre Theatre, St Andrews (Stanza), 2011 | An international display exploring the phenomenon of small artists’ books.
The RESPOND PROJECT 2021- is an ongoing collaboration with Maria White exploring the many ways connections can be made between artists’ books. This follows the curation of her own work alongside rare books at Blackie House in 2017-18 in the the book of the sky project.
LINKS & RESOURCES
Poet page at the Scottish Poetry Library website, with links to a selection of digitised works.
Books on Books curated by Robert Bolick
FORMATIONS, The Blue Notebook, Vol 9 No. 1, October 2014
Bodman, Sarah. Artists’ Books #34: The Book of the Sky – An Infinity of Pages, A-N, 10 October 2018.
CONTACT
essencepress @ btinternet.com